Doing the Next Big Thing

Main menu

Tag Archives: reid hoffman

Imagine my excitement when I saw Reid Hoffman’s name in my inbox. Reid Hoffman is the founder of LinkedIn and a pretty connected guy. I immediately thought …. Wow, he’s heard about Fingerprint and wants to know more ……

Actually, what he wanted was this:

So this wasn’t as cool as having a well known investor reach out about my start-up, but it was, in it’s own way, pretty awesome. Imagine being the 239223rd person to sign up of over 100MM. Early adopter, baby.

I remember the day I joined LinkedIn. Sitting at my desk at Atari in Beverly, Massachusetts looking outside at the snow. I actually remember the person who invited me – a sales guy from AOL. I remember thinking, ugh, this is probably another Plaxo – useful only for recruiters and sales people.

But very quickly LinkedIn became important. I got excited at every milestone. 50 Connections. 100 Connections. 500 Connections. I had my own journey with LinkedIn. There was a moment one day that I realized the Mike Edwards at CompUSA was the same Mike Edwards I’d gone to Drexel with and thought – this could be pretty useful. And the first time I messaged my network asking for Marketing Director referrals and got 40 resumes in one day (which incidentally was 37 more than the Recruiting Department had generated in three weeks). Or the day I posted CEO, Fingerprint Digital on my profile and got dozens of messages asking what I was up to ( aka can I join you?).

I check LinkedIn everyday. Not quite as addictive as Facebook, but compelling still. My top 5 uses:

1. Check to see who’s looked at my profile.

2. Check to see who wants to make a connection.

3. Check my Message Box.

4. See what’s new with my Groups.

5. Check to see who LinkedIn thinks I might want to connect with. (Very “Six Degrees Of Separation”)

So I like being number 239223. And kudos for LinkedIn for 100MM users and counting, but it would be cool if Reid Hoffman emailed me about Fingerprint, too.